M. reports that neighbors and residents of 161 Duane Street are coming out to CB1 tomorrow night (Wednesday, 6p, 1 Centre, 19th floor) for the Licensing and Permits Committee to hear from the applicant for the former Bouley space, a sister restaurant to Chinese Tuxedo and Peachy’s on Doyers Street. The two received two stars from the Times, and Peachy’s is home to the superfood cocktail made with stuff like cacao nib-infused mezcal and cashew orgeat (yuck?). Despite that, neighbors are worried. “This is a very different atmosphere than Bouley,” said M. “younger, louder, etc.” The restaurant’s plans currently call for a 35-seat bar area and 128-seat restaurant and weekend hours till 1a – which is also a big shift from the 60-seat, home-by-10 Bouley. UPDATE: This was postponed and is now on the committee agenda for April.

PROGRESS ON WARREN?
I hope? There’s the start of a roadbed on the northside of Warren between Greenwich and West Broadway. Nothing like the sight of fresh concrete…

GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY
The Battery Conservancy is seeking volunteers for its Spring Cutback, where gardeners trim the grasses to prep the beds for summer and regrowth. “Dutch horticulturalist Piet Oudolf designed these gardens with all four seasons in mind. His garden philosophy recognizes the architectural beauty of a seed pod or stem in winter, as well as the various seasonal colors and textures of plants. For this reason, we wait until spring to cut back our plants, a necessary step to allow for new growth.” (Adding in this second photo to prove Oudolf’s point.)

KIDS CHIPPING IN
Students at Léman – the IB school in the Financial District — packed 27,000 meals last week for the global hunger organization Rise Against Hunger. The packages of vitamins, rice, soy and dehydrated vegetables will be shipped to one of the group’s locations across the globe. This is the school’s fourth year in this partnership, and they have now packed 100,000 meals in total.

PIER 40 FOR ALL
If you want to engage in the plans to redevelop Pier 40 – the 13-acre piece of parkland at the end of Houston Street – the Friends of Hudson River Park has launched an online campaign called Pier 40 for All Coalition so folks can better understand the history and the potential of the pier, as well as the financial structure of the park and Pier 40’s role in it. So far there are 500 members of the coalition; the goal is to activate 1000 neighbors to get involved in the pier’s future.
“Right now we are as much about education as anything else,” said Connie Fishman, the executive director of the Friends. “When we go to meetings with the usual groups, we are all talking to each other, but not to new people. A lot of people don’t have time for these sorts of meetings – or don’t even know about them – but we still want them to know what’s going on. We want to broaden our base.”
You can sign up – or just read the FAQs on the pier – here.

MANHATTAN YOUTH HOSTS COMMUNITY AWARDS
Manhattan Youth will host its annual Community Awards on Thursday, April 11, 6:30p, at the Downtown Community Center on Warren. This years honorees are Community Board 1’s Youth & Education Committee chair Tricia Joyce for her advocacy on all issues regarding neighborhood schools; Save PS150’s parent leaders, Jonah Benton, Buxton & Lisa Midyette and Anshal Purohit, for keeping the school in its Tribeca home until a new one can be built; Mona Lombard, who is retiring from Manhattan Youth; and the Manhattan Youth teens who are the organization’s community service volunteers. Tickets are $10 for the event, or $100 to sponsor a volunteer. Available now here.